The Life After
by colbub
Summary: Defeating the darkness that engulfed Earth, Neo-Queen Serenity emerged as world saviour, striving to make an utopia. Yet, a ninety-two old woman only finds herself losing more and more when the Queen promised she would save everything


I was an old woman when it happened, ninety two and looking forward to joining my husband in heaven. My grandson had grown strong, and my son and daughter-in-law were all successful, booming, even when those strange inexplicable things happened around Tokyo, where people died mysteriously and all these rumours of girl soldiers. _Senshi,_ they called them.

_Senshi,_ the people whispered, the planet's protectors from the universe.

The more scientifically minded people scoffed. Magic, planets, and true loves. Princesses on the moon. Space being a frontier that could be broken. My son was a scientist, he studied marine biology. My daughter-in-law was a psychiatrist, who kept up furiously with politics. We didn't believe, even when the darkness destroyed half of Earth, crushing homes and killing many.

_Senshi, _people prayed. _Save us._

I was ninety-two when Crystal Tokyo appeared from the darkness, around the ruined Shinjuku district. The people had been afraid of this looming, seething wall of despair threatening to swallow the Earth whole. I tugged my blanket around myself, selfishly happy that I had lived for so long, had a chance for happiness in face of apocalypse, but grieved for my grandchildren who wouldn't have a chance.

Then a figure flew up _(impossible, physics, gravity)_ held up her hand and in a flash of light, a crystal palace had been created for her feet to rest on, as the light beat back the darkness in one blow. The sky cleared, the sun streamed down. All the devastated houses were replaced by beautiful, sparkling crystal constructs, and the city cheered.

My family huddled around me, asking me questions about my health, worried that in my old age I would be in shock. For the first time, I couldn't feel the aches in my bones. I stood up without my cane for the first time in seven years.

All around me, people were cheering, happy that someone had saved them.

_Senshi_, they all whispered, _magic._

My family only ushered me back to the streets where our house would have stood. A crystal construct lay there instead, but we were too tired to argue, to feel strange. I stepped inside, my son lending me an arm I didn't need for my age, feeling new grass beneath my feet.

And the Crystal Palace loomed over us all.

* * *

She was called Neo-Queen Serenity, and she had saved the world.

Impossibly beautiful, with long blonde locks and wide-blue eyes that projected love, youth, and power. She and her fellow team-mates showed their magic powers, purifying a few people who were depressed, who they called had 'demons'. After their purification, they looked happy.

As if all burden had lifted away.

The media had several field-days. They called her saviour. They accepted her explanation of her powers, of being the reincarnated princess of the moon. The moon kingdom, she said, was ruined. That's why when people went up, no-one could find anything.

Serenity assured that there would be no more alien attacks, for she had defeated the ultimate incarnation of Chaos. It was over, they were safe.

The media loved it.

The Neo-Queen had took over the world in one blast of light. Even if the world was saved, the world leaders around the world didn't want to bow to her.

America was the loudest, followed by China. Rumours of nuclear weapons in Korea. Russia was silent, while Europe was a mass of seething turmoil and confusion, as it had been hit the hardest, had lost the most. Australasia isolated itself, and Africa didn't care. Different countries didn't care if Japan had a new queen. They cared if the Queen wanted to dominate the rest of the world because that new leader said the old ways were too _violent._ Too _corrupted_.

Japan was small, Japan had no military force. Japan was the country that had the least casualties from the darkness that pervaded the world.

They started pointing fingers.

They started fighting.

And Neo-Queen Serenity purified them one by one, and the world fell to her fingertips.

_Love_, she breathed. _Justice. _She stood, holding her newborn daughter with her husband, a family of impossible beauty, elite and perfection. She bathed in light to shine it on the weak.

When little rebellions started, she purified them. They entered confused, angry. They left happy and peaceful.

I watched, waiting for death (my husband, who promised to wait for me forever with his last breath), while my family clutched at me with determined fingers, their eyes cold at the face of this apparent utopia.

* * *

My daughter-in-law was a firm believer of democracy, of fair ruling. Of the saying 'absolute power absolutely corrupts'. She followed politics, she had a beautiful, sharp mind. She saw in other people their weaknesses and strengths, helping her job as a psychiatrist immensely. One of her patients had gone to Neo-Queen for a purification for his seemingly never-ending grief over the death of his daughter to the darkness.

He left happy, having accepted the death and realised the worth of his own life after a little bath of light that the Neo-Queen unselfishly gave.

My daughter only gripped tightly at my arm, protesting that this wasn't right. That people grieved because it was an important process to how people worked. That suppression wasn't the answer, and demons existed in the mind of people so people could _fight it themselves_. People couldn't grow if they depended on magic to fix all their problems.

She cried into my shoulder, and I could only wipe away her tears, wrap my bony arms around her, and wonder why after five years I wasn't aging.

* * *

They were purifying everyone one by one. They started with the most violent places, where war had raged and people were grieving. There, Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion gave everyone, from beggar to King, her blessing. They all became peaceful and prosperous after that.

They swept the world, leaving Japan last.

And in those four years, I realised with horror that I couldn't die.

I sat silent in my rocking chair in my own crystal palace, looking at the beautiful flower gardens that the people who had become unemployed had done. Doctors, medical scientists, lawyers, military men, all happily creating masterpieces from the land around us.

My family could not get me out of my daze. Thinking back now, I am guilty for their worried expressions. My grandson and his girlfriend brought me flowers, arranged my bed. My daughter cooked, and embraced me, whispering stories of glory and war-heroes that I had told her I loved.

My son held my hands in his own, stronger, larger ones, and told me this was the last straw. In his eyes was strong determination from his love for his family, and his own thoughts of justice.

* * *

In the two months before the Neo-Queen and her husband came back, my son stirred a rebellion. He raised the questions everyone had been avoiding, he rallied them and _questioned._ The pregnant ladies who were going to pregnant for the next millennia, the newborns whose parents would never see growing up. The elderly, who had so many in the afterlife, and the children who would never understand the important morals that came from accepting the good and the bad.

He was so many people's role-model.

Then royalty came back and destroyed them. Destroyed _him. _They were given a chance for purification.

Most accepted.

Some refused. The Queen, with that infinite compassion in her eyes, with too much responsibility and no advisors to tell her how to rule the world (she was twenty-two when she froze, young and uneducated) she banished all the protesting people to the 'Black Moon'. An asteroid that had the bare minimum for survival.

I rocked in my rocking chair, remembering my sons defiant gaze as he stood in front of my daughter in a futile effort to protect. My grandson, holding tightly onto his girlfriend's hand, eyes believing in their cause.

I, struggling to get through the crowds, to be with them.

My son's gentle gaze as he pushed me away.

"Mother, stay safe."

I dreamed of warm determined gazes, of cooking, of flowers and comfort and love.

* * *

Our street was one of the last in the system to visit the Palace to get purified. I straggled behind, as the workers in the palace gently knocked on doors, invited people to the Crystal Palace with cherubic smiles on their faces.

The one that knocked on my door was understanding of my old age, offering his arm to me as I walked slowly towards the Palace. I refused.

I climbed the steps.

Walked down the hallway.

And she sat, resplendent in her white dress that was as pure as her heart, the blue of her eyes warm and welcoming as she greeted the last non-purified person on the Earth.

* * *

"Let me die."

She stared at me, innocent eyes wide. The Neo-Queen could have arguably been the most beautiful lady I've ever seen. Just coming out into womanhood, yet not lost the spirit of innocence.

Then she blinked, and smiled at me.

"I'm here to take care of you, to make sure that there is no darkness within you. If I purify you, you wouldn't have those thoughts…" She trailed off when I shook my head, my neck strengthened by magic, heavy with loss.

"How young are you, your Highness?"

"Please call me Serenity," she smiled sweetly, gesturing for me to sit next to her. I did, phantom pains in my knees creaking as she put pillows behind my back. "I was twenty-two when I defeated the darkness with my comrades, the Sailor Senshi."

"Do you know anything about politics? Diplomatic courses you've studied?"

Her face grew a little red as she examined the dancing shadows on the floor from the trees behind us.

"I never had time for education, with defeating the darkness and friends. Even then, I was not a very good student."

"No wonder you're so naïve."

She looked up at me, curiosity in her eyes.

"One of the things that make life worth living is death, dear," I said with a soft smile. She immediately sat up and shook her head vehemently.

"No, death is sad! Death is so much loss and pain. I've seen my friends die before, and I was so—"

"Did it drive you to fight even harder?"

She looked unsure, as she slowly slumped a little.

"Yes."

"I agree that death is pain and loss and everything you've said. But death is moving on, death is the knowledge that drives many to fear, and many to work harder to enjoy what they have. I have nothing to live for, now."

She took one of my hands in hers, denying what I said. "What about your family? Did they die in the face of the darkness?"

I shook my head.

"No, they were banished to starve on an asteroid."

She stiffened.

"My son, my daughter, my grandson and his girlfriend… all sent away from me because they had a different set of justice than yours."

There was a silence after my soft accusation, the bright purity of the place seemingly chastising me for distressing its creator. The pure, innocent, creator. Ignorant, blind creator.

"Do you blame me?"

"Yes." I looked straight into her blue eyes. My eyes, plain, old brown, dulled with age. Only my husband had ever called me beautiful. "Without change, there is no growth. Without growth, people only stagnate. There is no higher cause to work, nor any cause to innovate. Without death, there are no doctors. Without crime, there is no law. No jobs. This would cause turmoil if not for your purification. You taking away all will to fight."

She stood up to reach for some tea, which she poured two cups, her face upset. Delicate china cups, beautiful workmanship.

"Not fighting is a good thing."

"I agree. But to accept that for yourself, for people to grow at their own pace, is a basic human right."

She returned with the tea, handing one to me while the other she curled her small hands around. Serenity was much smaller than I imagined.

"Human right," she whispered.

"Yes. You've taken a lot of those away. Free speech, death, growth, time." I could barely understand why I was being so brazen, so forthright. Maybe it was because I had nothing left to lose. I was old and alone. I had a whole life in front of me that I didn't want to have. My time had come. She took it away.

She took a sip of her tea, sunlight streaming from the back to light her hair up in golden waves. "I've never stopped free speech."

"My son," was all I replied.

And that was the end of that. I set down my tea, took her cup from her own hand and stood up, giving her a hug. She returned it after a few seconds, and I briefly imagined that it was my grandson. But she was too soft, too small.

"You're young, dear. You're blind, and probably only interacted with a specific group of people, all young and blind and idealistic as you. Take the time to know your people, know their opinions, know how happiness can be fulfilled by oneself. That's what you did for yourself. Others might want the chance too."

I pulled back, and stared at the face. No matter how the magic she wrought on the world stopped my aging, my mind couldn't help registering them, my spine protesting as I sat back down.

"You are wise, grandmother," she said.

"No, I have merely lived too long. Can you retrieve my family from the asteroid?"

Her face twisted briefly.

I sighed my heartbreak.

"Will you let me die?"

"You're too good of a person for me to let you die. I've… I've never agreed to any death at all," she said, voice soft.

_(because she was only another human after all, reincarnated or not)_

"Will you let me die?"

Serenity's hand was indecisive, clenching her crystal and letting go, picking it up and holding it to her heart, dropping it on her lap. Her eyes bore into me, young yet wise from hardship. She merely wanted no one to face the same, but yet I couldn't feel forgiveness. Compassion maybe. But never forgiveness.

She raised her hand, bright white light surging from her palm.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

**Really should be working on my other fics. First time typing the type of stuff, so please be nice! I would love reviews, haha. Not expecting much though, since I don't think this fandom is into such stuff but hey, who knows XD I decided to post this because I dunno. I am positive after this I don't want to type anything Sailor Moon though, haha. First and only oneshot? Maybe.**

**But please review! I would love your opinions. ^^**


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